§ Mr. MAXTONasked the Minister of Pensions the cost per head of maintaining patients at the hospitals of the Ministry at Cosham, Hants, and Erskine House, Renfrewshire, respectively; and what are the proportions of that cost due to administrative charges, medical attention, and to food?
Mr. HUDSONThe cost at the Ministry hospital at Cosham is 8s. per patient per day, but precise analysis of the expenditure cannot be prepared on the lines desired. The Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Maimed and Limbless Sailors and Soldiers at Erskine House is not maintained by the Ministry and no information is therefore available as to the analysis of cost. The cost to the Ministry of its own patients in this hospital is about 7s. 8d. per head per day.
§ Mr. STEPHENasked the Minister of Pensions whether he will take steps to provide treatment allowances for ex-service men undergoing hospital treatment where such ex-service men are undergoing treatment for a disability which the Ministry accepts as having been aggravated by service in the War; and how the Ministry is able to decide that aggravating effects in the case of phthisis have ceased to operate?
Mr. HUDSONTreatment allowances are, subject to the usual conditions, granted to pensioners undergoing a course of in-patient treatment approved by my medical officers as being necessary for the present condition of a disability whether due to or still aggravated by war service. The question whether the aggravating effects of war service still persist is a matter determined by my medical advisers on the history and facts of each case.